Video shows rare cougar sighting in northwestern Ontario
CBC
Another cougar sighting has been recorded in northwestern Ontario.
A short cellphone video taken on Dec. 19 near the community of Wabaseemoong, north of Kenora, shows one of the wild cats running down a snow-covered road and bounding into the woods.
The long tail and tawny fur of the cougar is clearly seen as it runs. The video was shot by Noreen McDonald, who was in a truck with her partner Martin Carpenter driving on Sand Lake Road.
The pair were out to get firewood when they came upon the cat.
Carpenter said at one point it was only a few feet away from his truck before it went bounding down the road.
"I recognized right away it was a cougar at the front of my truck," he said. "I was driving on the right side, and the cougar was on the left side."
Carpenter said the animal started running, and that's when McDonald got out the phone and recorded the animal.
"It was kind of shaky because she was a bit shocked by seeing the cougar," he said. "Even that night, I could barely sleep after seeing it."
Carpenter said he has lived in the area for 47 years and had never seen a cougar before.
Gary Wheeler, a spokesperson with the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks, said in an emailed statement that the cat in the video appears to be a cougar and that "provincial staff went to where the video was taken and found cougar tracks."
"Cougars are an elusive species and extremely rare in Ontario," he said. "However, the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks is aware of sightings in Northwest Ontario. Small amounts of physical evidence (about 24 records) including feces, tracks, and DNA, confirm the presence of free-ranging cougars in parts of Ontario."
Cougars are elusive in the northwest, but sightings have become more common in recent years.
In March 2017, a dead cougar was found along the edge of a bush road northwest of Thunder Bay. It was the first confirmed wild cougar carcass recorded in Ontario.
In December 2020 and then again last January, cougars were recorded on different trail cameras outside of Thunder Bay.
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